Announcements from Letter from the Producer Live Part LXXXV (85) - 7 February 2025

[Iscah]

It's more akin to island sanctuary which similarly starts off as a blank (wild and overgrown) slate that quickly becomes your base of operations.

I liked it better when it was wild and overgrown and not after we were forced to tear it up to progress. We never got any decent way to hide the factories either.

This looks somewhat better since it's starting with a very blank zone anyway. Hopefully our Loporrit assistants are less obnoxious than the mammets.

[Daralii]

It's more akin to island sanctuary which similarly starts off as a blank (wild and overgrown) slate that quickly becomes your base of operations.

It'll depend on what the framing for the initial quests is, but setting up bases to harvest resources from unsettled islands near Vylbrand makes complete sense as a basic idea. The only established things of potential value on the moon were cultivated by the Loporrits, and travel to and from Bestways Burrow hasn't been treated as having any obstacles since the portal in Garlemald was opened.

[Exmo]

I liked it better when it was wild and overgrown and not after we were forced to tear it up to progress. We never got any decent way to hide the factories either.

This looks somewhat better since it's starting with a very blank zone anyway. Hopefully our Loporrit assistants are less obnoxious than the mammets.

Agreed on the first point. The concept of taming the wilds to bring civilization to it... not a fan. FFXIV tends on the most part to be ideologically conservative in this and similar ways (cosmic exploration is probably going to have us strip mining other planets in the name of expansionism, for example) but this is a topic for another day.

It'll depend on what the framing for the initial quests is, but setting up bases to harvest resources from unsettled islands near Vylbrand makes complete sense as a basic idea. The only established things of potential value on the moon were cultivated by the Loporrits, and travel to and from Bestways Burrow hasn't been treated as having any obstacles since the portal in Garlemald was opened.

The uninhabited islands were mainly background until they were elevated as the premise for island sanctuaries. I imagine for cosmic exploration it'll do something similar - either expand on some tiny background lore from an EW side quest, or introduce something new to kick off the expedition. I don't really mind if it's the latter tbh. I like it when NPCs I introduce me to things that have been going on in the background all along, even though I wasn't aware of it until that moment. It helps the world feel bigger and more alive.

[CVXIV]

The comparable endeavors at least started with some kind of framework, not just an empty stretch of sand that seems devoid of use. Revenant's Toll was the closest a place came to starting from nothing, but even that started as an Adventurer's Guild outpost to replace the one they lost in the Calamity.

Yeah you have a point there, even with the firmament it had a bunch of ruined buildings so you'd have an idea of what's being built

[Iscah]

It'll depend on what the framing for the initial quests is, but setting up bases to harvest resources from unsettled islands near Vylbrand makes complete sense as a basic idea. The only established things of potential value on the moon were cultivated by the Loporrits, and travel to and from Bestways Burrow hasn't been treated as having any obstacles since the portal in Garlemald was opened.

From the images were shown so far, if the blank plain and the pink vegetation are progression shots of the same area, it seems like this might be almost an inversion of Island Sanctuary – instead of harvesting resources, we're cultivating them.

That said, the third picture is a crater field exposing new types of rock, which seems likely to be a site for mining, so it's possible that the plain, vegetation and craters are all there from the beginning as zones for crafting, botany and mining, respectively. If so, then that just leaves the question of where we're going fishing – perhaps in that big chasm up the back of the first picture?

[BokoToloko]

From the images were shown so far, if the blank plain and the pink vegetation are progression shots of the same area, it seems like this might be almost an inversion of Island Sanctuary – instead of harvesting resources, we're cultivating them.

That said, the third picture is a crater field exposing new types of rock, which seems likely to be a site for mining, so it's possible that the plain, vegetation and craters are all there from the beginning as zones for crafting, botany and mining, respectively. If so, then that just leaves the question of where we're going fishing – perhaps in that big chasm up the back of the first picture?

To be honest, the whole venture seems less about cosmic exploration and more about terraforming the moon. Doing a terraforming endeavor doesn't sound more boring than cosmic exploration, so I don't know why did they go for that name.

[Iscah]

To be honest, the whole venture seems less about cosmic exploration and more about terraforming the moon. Doing a terraforming endeavor doesn't sound more boring than cosmic exploration, so I don't know why did they go for that name.

They said we'll get a new planet with each major patch, though I assume it's going to be all recycled scenery from either Ultima, Dead Ends / Elysion or possibly the Stigma Dreamscape. Though perhaps Elysion got the amount of detail it did because they could justify it with further plans for the models?

[Hallarem]

Does anyone have any acceptance pills to the fact that they are never going to surmount to anything great. Leaving QoL and system improvements to the dust.

And that I am basically paying a sub for a free to play quality game.

I'll take copium in any form too. - Final Scifi-"fantasy" fan

[Shougun]

It's following a formula, which we know is just how it's done now... But I am interested in the cosmic and phantom job concepts. I note it appears some adjustments were made due to feedback. I hope for cosmic they found a way to improve the gameplay though, island gameplay was so basic.... I was hoping for a sort of WoW garrison (without the power creep issues) but we got a right to click to win + Excel. : (

I imagine it'll use some diadem / Ishgard systems, just a guess.

Lack of job / combat changes is not great though. Im not sure if I'll keep my sub to really try out either content, been bemoaning gameplay roleplay for years and decided to try WoW and they're doing that on orders of magnitude better. It's not all better but many pitfalls they appear to be working on right now, meanwhile I don't feel SE is doing the same (shoring up flaws, I'm not saying they dont make content).

[Valence]

I don't think you're getting what's the point of bait. You DON'T refute bait, you disengage from it and point others to do the same.

A bait's only point is to literally turn discussions into flame fights. There is literally nothing to refute from a post that's done in incredibly bad faith.

Bait is in the eye of the beholder. To me this one stands more alongside the lines of satire more than anything, which I do agree with the underlying sentiment.

Feel free to call my reply as bait too, just to prove my point.